


Homesick in Little Odessa

by Hypatia_66



Series: An UNCLE Gazetteer [15]
Category: The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (TV)
Genre: ABC Challenge, Community: section7mfu, Emotional Baggage, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 12:17:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14977001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypatia_66/pseuds/Hypatia_66
Summary: LH ABC Affair II. Cities A-Z. Prompt O.Illya feels homesick for the past





	Homesick in Little Odessa

Since leaving UNCLE, he had found a new occupation, was busy, travelled - though not quite as much as before – and was successful. But Illya’s sense of loss, painfully akin to homesickness, remained with him. Napoleon’s defection to other pastures had hit him particularly hard – the ache endured even now.

It was a hot day and, succumbing to an older homesickness, he had come to wander the streets of Brighton Beach. Little Odessa, people had come to call it since the influx of Soviet immigrants from big Odessa. He went into the Russian bookstore, found people to talk to in his own tongue, found stores selling familiar food.

He’d been to Odessa once. His brief time with the Black Sea Fleet at the naval base of Sevastópol had been quite a happy period. It was hot for one thing, unlike Murmansk. One weekend, there had been a special trip from Sevastópol to visit Odessa and see the famous steps.

A memory came to him of a movie theatre in Manhattan, years ago now, showing a season of Eisenstein movies. He’d persuaded Napoleon to come with him to see _Battleship Potemkin_ again – it was, after all, one of the greatest movies of all time. He thought Napoleon might begin to understand what made him tick and maybe take him more seriously – but of course, it didn’t have that effect. How could it? To Napoleon it was a technically influential movie, but its content was purely emotional propaganda, and the massacre scene on the Odessa steps hadn’t even really happened. For Napoleon, it didn’t convey any part of Illya’s soul. And he hadn’t even known how to pronounce Potemkin. That memory almost made him smile – Napoleon’s accent and pronunciation of most foreign languages was awful.

Seeing that movie together had been early on in their relationship. Afterwards they had grown close as brothers… and Illya had forgotten the early disappointment until now.

Better to forget again and let go. He breathed deeply, released the breath and moved on.

**Author's Note:**

> Potemkin is pronounced Potyomkin.


End file.
